Tigers Fans May Need Dramamine For Roller Coaster Season
By: Eric Thomas
It's been a tough season for Tiger fans. It's produced some dizzying highs and frustrating lows. Granted, the dizzying highs were during the first 10 games and the lows have been … well… everything else. You can't blame fans for their bipolar tendencies. The team doesn't lose all the time. They win occasionally. Sometimes they beat decent teams like the Reds. Then they lose to bad teams like the Twins at home, getting swept in the process.
Maybe this is some kind of test. Tigers fans were lured to a high-priced premium sports car this year and it turned out to be a jalopy with a Hall and Oates tape stuck in the deck.
On my Twitter and Facebook pages, the hate is spread wide and thin like birdshot. There doesn't seem to be a singular narrative to it. It's all over the place. The common criticism that I see on the social interwebs is the "lack of consistency" argument. They must be watching different games than I am. They are very consistent. In fact, you could record three Tiger games and just repeat them over and over. You could name them 'the one they can't score runs.' or 'the one where the (bullpen / defense) collapses' and 'the disaster where everything falls apart'. Repeat those games and just change the teams, and you have the season.
This is why the games this weekend had fans in such a fever dream. The games this weekend looked like something that wasn't on the DVR of failure. They fought back from deficits and hit with runners in scoring position. Brennan Bosch actually got hits when it mattered. Ajax was back and driving in runs.
We were strapping party hats on with streamers and horns. We were ready to watch a super expensive team mash everyone else in the paltry American League Central. The opening game of the Cubs series managed to flush that good feeling down the toilet.
The media tends to shake a fist fans, shaming them for inconsistency. I can't blame them. The Tigers have only this year become a high dollar team where you watch every game. Tiger fans are used to lying on pontoon boats until the All Star Break then making generalizations about the pitching rotation in September.
Plenty of people dismiss fans who didn't watch before 2006 that is ridiculous. Only a masochist would have watched the Tigers before 2006. That or you were getting paid to watch.
But season isn't lost and they show signs of being able to compete. You are just going to have to ride this roller coaster. Maybe you can get some Prozac. Or Dramamine.
